Look up to the sky and you'll be in for a massive spectacle on Friday night.
The longest lunar eclipse (the total eclipse of the moon) of the 21st century will dazzle the sky and turn the moon a beautiful red hue.
The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA) says it's one of the "astronomical highlights" of the year.
No special equipment is required to see the spectacle, so you have no excuse!
Things start to get exciting when the moon begins to appear to change shape from 20:24.
From 21:30 until 23:13 the moon will be totally eclipsed.
At 00:19, the moon will be out of the Earth's umbral shadow and the show will be over.
The moon will appear normal by 01:30.
For the super keen
Several South African organisations are set to host eclipse-watching events.
If you'd like to be a part of the hype, telescopes for planet-viewing will be available at these public eclipse-watch events:
At the old Observatory, in Observatory, Johannesburg, hosted by Astronomical Society of SA (Jhb)At the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, hosted by the SA Astronomical Observatory and the Astronomical Society of SA (CT)At Pearly Beach, near Gansbaai, hosted by the Southern Cape Astronomical Society.
Don't miss the planets
Another wonderful about the eclipse is that on this night, four planets will be easily visible to the naked eye, says the ASSA.
"If you look for them, you'll see that they stretch in a line across the sky, from Venus in the west to Mars and the Moon in the east – you're looking at our flat solar system from the inside," it says on its website.
Venus is the very bright "evening star", high in the west as the Sun sets; a small telescope with good optics and enough magnification will show a "half-Venus" – Venus has phases, like the Moon. Venus will set as the eclipse starts.
Jupiter is also worth looking at with a small telescope – look for its four largest moons.
Saturn is another good telescope target – look for the rings.
Mars is at its brightest this week and noticeably orange – completely coincidentally, our planet is passing Mars, and we're closer this time than we have been since 2003. It will be near the eclipsed Moon – very cool sight!
You will only be able to witness this rare lunar eclipse again in 2025.
